One-time VP Dick Cheney: An Examination on His Powerful Time in Office
The deceased US vice-president Dick Cheney, who has died at age 84, was regarded as arguably the most influential holders of the vice-presidency in US history. Although countless VPs were confined to peripheral or symbolic positions, Cheney exercised huge sway during the administration of George W Bush, to the point that he was commonly referred to as the "real president".
Bush disliked that description and claimed the relationship was more complex. He noted that Cheney was respectful, always addressing him in public as Mr President, while he called him as Dick. Bush questioned even descriptions of their association as a partnership because it suggested that they were on equal footing. In spite of these objections, Cheney considered the laidback president malleable on a broad range of policy decisions.
The Period Following the Attacks
In charge of a contingent of neo-cons that included defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, he pushed hard for the military intervention of Iraq in 2003 in answer to the terrorist strikes on New York and Washington. When of the 9/11 attack, Bush had been taking part in a gathering at a educational institution in Florida. As Bush headed for a secure location in Nebraska, Cheney took command, ordering the shooting down of any unidentified airplanes approaching the government building.
Cheney stated the strikes changed him, causing him to be focused on revenge. In conjunction with other conservative figures, including Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, he advocated for a takeover of Afghanistan in an effort to seize Osama bin Laden. Cheney then pressed fiercely for the military action of Iraq, even though there was no evidence of Saddam Hussein being involved.
Debated Actions
He expressed no regrets about the armed intervention, in which an estimated 100,000 Iraqis lost their lives, or about the enhanced interrogation of individuals apprehended after 9/11. He informed CNN in 2015 that the Iraq military action, which was founded on inaccurate reports echoed by Cheney, was the right course of action. "It was the proper decision to do at that time. I was convinced back then and I hold that view now."
However even at the time, there were contrary opinions at a top tier about the poor management of Iraq. One of the government's own delegates to the region, General Anthony Zinni (2001-03), was not retained from the position. "I observed, at the very least," he wrote later "true dereliction, inaction, and irresponsibility: potentially, lying, ineptitude, and dishonesty."
Additional Factors
Cheney was not entirely accountable for the Iraq military action. Prior to 9/11, Wolfowitz had pushed for such action. He had drafted a document outlining situations in which American interests might be endangered (including "obtaining vital raw materials, mostly Persian Gulf oil"). Wolfowitz had argued that "the United States should be positioned to take unilateral action when cooperative measures cannot be orchestrated," explicitly mentioning armed actions against Iraq.
Bush too had entered the presidency vaguely intent on carrying out what his parent had notably declined to do in 1991; topple Saddam. After he had been fired by the president, the treasury secretary Paul O'Neill recounted how, at the initial gathering of the National Security Council in January 2001, Bush had announced his intention of diminishing America's involvement in the Middle East dispute and proposed military action against Iraq.
Bush held a private grievance against Saddam, thinking he had been behind a plot to murder his parent, President George HW Bush, on a trip to Kuwait in 1993. He furthermore resented that one of the most prominent hotels in Baghdad had a ground design with a likeness of his parent's face that everyone had to step on.
Investigation Approaches
But it was Cheney who was part of the most vehement behind attacking Iraq, frequently citing information documents that were whether insubstantial or completely misleading. He endorsed what the Bush administration politely called as "intensive questioning", the application of waterboarding and physical pressure.
Addressing a Senate analysis in 2014 that concluded that no valuable data had resulted from the harsh techniques, Cheney dismissed the report as "full of crap". He told Fox News: "We asked [the CIA] to take steps and create programmes to catch the perpetrators who killed 3,000 of us on 9/11 and make sure it would not recur. That's exactly what they did and they earn a lot of credit."
Public Persona
Cheney reveled in nicknames assigned to him by critics such as the Star Wars villain and the dark figure, and by the concept that he was a shadow power controlling Bush. In the author's 2013 book about the duo, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House, Cheney is quoted as saying: "Am I the evil genius in the shadows that operates invisibly emerge from his hole? It's a effective way to function, truthfully."
Commercial Ties
Debate over his corporate affiliations pursued him during his tenure as vice-president. While he had limited background in commerce but strong connections in military, notably in Saudi Arabia, he was invited to join Halliburton, one of the world's biggest petroleum conglomerates, in 1995 as chairman and top executive.
In 2000 he assumed the role of Bush's running mate for the White House. Contentiously, during the conflict in Iraq, Halliburton was given US deals worth billions.
It greatly increased his wealth. His annual income during his tenure at the firm grew from his previous salary during his time as military head to $4.4m. When he resigned in 2000 he had a severance arrangement worth more than $20m|twenty
